


There is a Thin Line

by sharkie335



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Aftercare, M/M, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-24
Updated: 2013-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-26 18:40:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/653242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkie335/pseuds/sharkie335
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Doms need aftercare too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There is a Thin Line

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Aftercare fest at ragingrainbow’s DW. The prompt was: Experienced sub! takes on a new Dom and teaches him that Dom’s need aftercare, too, even when the sub doesn't.
> 
> Title is from a quote by Erma Bombeck - “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”

“Are you sure about this?” Steve asked nervously.

“Absolutely,” Tony said. Steve couldn’t actually see his face, since Tony was currently lying face down across his lap, but he just knew the look on Tony’s face - lustful and excited, with no real thought as to the possibilities of the ways this could go wrong.

Steve ran his hand across Tony’s ass, which gave a little wiggle. What he _really_ wanted was to move Tony over and turn them so that they could get off together. But Tony had asked for this, and it didn’t seem to be that big a deal. He could do this.

He lifted his hand and brought it down in a light tap against Tony’s ass. Tony wiggled again and said, “Come on, Steve. I know you can hit harder than that.”

Sighing, Steve said, “You agreed that if I said I’d do this, I’d get to do it my own way. And that means starting light, _because_ I know just how hard I can hit, and I doubt you really want that.”

Tony huffed, but didn’t say anything further, which Steve took as agreement. A second slap to Tony’s ass was a little harder. It was still more noise than impact, but when he lifted his hand, he’d left a pink mark on Tony’s cheek. Tony seemed to like the increased force, if the way that he whispered, “Yes,” was any indication.

Seeing that mark did funny things to Steve’s insides. A little bit of shock that he had deliberately hit Tony, a little bit of amusement at Tony’s reaction. A whole lot of lust at touching Tony in any way.

The third smack actually had a fair amount of force behind it, enough to drive a hard breath out of Tony and leave an actual handprint on his ass. Fearing that he’d gone too far, Steve was already trying to summon an apology, only to be derailed by Tony saying, “Yes. Just like that, only _more_.”

“Really?” Steve asked, still unsure.

At that, Tony twisted so that he could look back over his shoulder at Steve. “Really. I meant it when I said I wanted you to spank me until I came, and that’s not going to happen if you pussy-foot around. I can take a lot. I _want_ you to blister my ass. Now, come on. Have I not annoyed you enough this week? Because I can try to be more annoying if that’s what it takes.”

Steve couldn’t help the chuckle at that, even though he knew that Tony meant it. They spent as much time arguing as they did having sex most days, though it was nowhere near as vicious as it had been in the early days. “No, it’s not necessary,” he said, bringing his hand down again, duplicating the force as closely as he could.

Tony turned back around and dropped his forehead back onto the bed. “ _Thank_ you,” he said, but his voice was breathy, which did even more funny things to Steve’s insides.

With that, Steve tried to put his concerns that he wasn’t doing the right thing out of his mind and just focused on the feel of Tony’s ass under his hand, at the way that he started to lift his hips into each slap of Steve’s palm against the tender skin. He could feel Tony getting hard against his thigh, his cock rubbing against the large muscle there.

The skin on Tony’s ass was starting to get hot, almost evenly red all over, and Tony was making small enthusiastic noises with each slap, and Steve realized with a shock that Tony wasn’t the only one hard. He knew logically that it only made sense - he had a naked Tony writhing in his lap, one making all of Steve’s favorite sex sounds - why shouldn’t he be hard? But at the same time, he was hard because he was _hitting_ Tony. How fucking warped was that?

Suddenly, Tony’s sounds turned into actually words. “Harder, Steve. I can take it harder.”

Tony’s ass was bright red. If Steve hit him any harder, there were going to be bruises. But Tony was asking for it and it was Tony’s ass. He should know what he wanted, right? So Steve pulled back and laid a slap down that was much harder than any of the previous, hard enough that Tony yelped, and that he could see the handprint even through the already present marks.

Before he could panic, though, Tony was gasping out, “Yes, yes, just like that. Just a few more.”

Part of Steve was insisting that this had gone far enough. Tony was _definitely_ going to have a bruise in the shape of his hand. He couldn’t really want Steve to hit him that hard again, could he? But when Steve paused, torn, Tony squirmed, pushed his cock against Steve and then lifted his ass, thrusting it back. “Fuck, so _good_ ,” Tony said. “Knew you’d be good at this. Love your hands.”

What else could Steve do but slap him again? This time Tony cried out, but Steve knew that sound, knew that it meant that Tony was close. So he did it again, and again, trying to make Tony come.

It didn’t take much more - a half dozen strokes or so - and Tony froze momentarily before his hips jerked and Steve could feel him coming all over Steve’s leg. Steve froze as well, before bringing his hand down gently and resting it over the heat of Tony’s ass.

The silence in the room was only broken by the sound of Tony’s harsh breathing for a long moment, and then Tony was sliding down off Steve’s lap, landing on his knees on the floor. He hissed when his ass made contact with his heels, and he jerked up a bit, which made Steve’s stomach twist all over again, but before he could find the words to apologize, Tony leaned forward and licked the head of Steve’s cock.

He wasn’t even aware that he was still hard until that simple touch. He was uncertain about what he should do, and so he did nothing for a long second, and then Tony took the decision out of his hands, his mouth sliding all the way down his cock, sucking and licking. Before Steve even realized that he was close, he was coming, shooting down Tony’s throat.

Tony licked his cock clean and then leaned up, clearly wanting a kiss. _This_ , Steve could do readily, letting Tony have control of the kiss, only letting it end when Tony was the one to break away. When Tony met his eyes, Steve was unsure about what he was going to say, but when all it was was, “Thank you,” he couldn’t bring himself to say “You’re welcome.” He couldn’t bring himself to say anything at all.

All he could do was close his eyes, and even that was hard, because all he could see was Tony’s ass, red and welted from his hand, and okay, maybe he was freaking out more than a little. He tried to keep his breathing steady, even, but apparently it wasn’t enough to fool Tony for long, because suddenly he had a lap full of Tony, his arms wrapped tightly around Steve. “Are you okay?” Tony asked, his voice serious. Steve started to answer, to say that of course he was all right - after all, he wasn’t the one with bruises on his ass - but Tony cut him off to say, “ _Don’t_ lie to me.”

“N-not really,” Steve admitted reluctantly.

Tony brushed a kiss over the side of Steve’s neck. “Want to talk about it?”

Oh, _hell_ , no. “Not really,” Steve repeated. He didn’t understand what the hell was going on inside his own head. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how he might explain it to someone else.

“Okay,” Tony said. “Tell you what. Let’s lie down, okay?” Steve nodded. When Tony had slid off his lap, he shifted back on the bed, turning so that he was lying down right way around. He was grateful when Tony followed silently, wrapping his arms around Steve and holding him tight.

He realized that he was shaking a little, and he tried to pull away from Tony so that he could hide it, but Tony just tightened his hold. To get free would require Steve to exert more force and he thought he’d had enough of that today.

“It’s okay,” Tony whispered into his hair. “It really _is_ okay, Steve. It was good, you were perfect, you did exactly what I wanted, it’s all okay.”

“I hurt you,” Steve found himself whispering. “And I _liked_ it. I _got off_ on it. That’s pretty fucked up, Tony.”

Tony sighed a little. This wasn’t one of his sighs of frustration or annoyance. It was one that Steve hadn’t heard before, and it made him lift his head to meet Tony’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” he said. He wasn’t completely certain what he was apologizing for - for the bruises, for freaking out, for _something_ , but he definitely meant it.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Tony said. “I’m _glad_ you got off on it. That was part of the point. You didn’t do anything that I didn’t explicitly ask for, and you didn’t actually hurt me. I might have trouble sitting for a few days, but that’s awesome because every time I try and my ass stings I’ll think about how well you did, about how good it felt to come all over you because you gave me a spanking that I asked for. But it’s okay to freak out a little, and it’s okay to admit that it’s a little scary.”

Steve relaxed a little as Tony combed his fingers through his hair. “I sometimes forget how new all of this is to you,” Tony said. “I just get excited by all the things that we can do together, and I forget that it’s weird the first time.”

Taking a slow, careful, breath, Steve tried to believe Tony. “But I hurt you,” he said again. “You’re going to have bruises.”

“And I’m going to love every second that they’re there,” Tony said. “Do you trust me?”

That brought Steve’s head up so that he could meet Tony’s eyes squarely. “Of course I do,” he said forcefully.

“Then trust me that I’ll stop you if you do something I don’t like,” Tony said. “If you really didn’t like it, we don’t have to do it again, but I think that you just need to process that you _did_ , and that that’s _fine_. But while you process, I think we should lie here, just like this, until you feel better.”

Steve bit his lip. “Shouldn’t I be taking care of you?” he said.

“It’s not necessary,” Tony said. “Some time we may do something that requires you to hold me like this. But right now, I don’t need it and you do, and that’s perfectly good too.”

He felt like he should argue the point some more, but it felt good to be wrapped up in Tony’s arms. Maybe it was a little weird that spanking Tony had gotten him this, but Tony didn’t seem upset, so he was just going to let it go, and accept it.

He closed his eyes, willed the tenseness out of his muscles, and accepted what he needed.


End file.
